1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to a box body construction which is preferably used for a digital image forming apparatus of, for example, a copying machine, a facsimile machine, etc..
2. Description of the Prior Art
As shown in FIG. 13, in this kind of a conventional box body construction of a digital image forming apparatus, a document (not illustrated) is placed on a document table 2 arranged in an upper box body 1. Thereafter, images of the document are read by scanning the document with a CCD line sensor (not illustrated) which is arranged in the upper box body 1 and constitutes a scanner unit 3. In this case, the scanner unit 3 is driven by a motor (not illustrated ) arranged in the upper box body 1.
Data of the document images read as shown above is outputted to a laser scanning unit (hereinafter, laser scanning unit is abbreviated into LSU) 5 arranged in a lower box body 4 on which the upper box body 1 is placed and supported. The LSU 5 is removably placed on a panel 6 fixed to a frame body (not illustrated) in the lower box body 4 with screws. Electrostatic latent images are formed on a photosensitive drum 7 by the LSU 5, based on the data of the above document images. Thereafter, the document images corresponding to the electrostatic latent images are transferred on a sheet of paper (not illustrated).
In this case, the photosensitive drum 7 is arranged under the panel 6 in the frame body and constitutes a printer unit 8, and the photosensitive drum 7 is driven by another motor (not illustrated) arranged in the lower box body 4 independently from the drive source in the upper box body 1 as well as the LSU 5, etc..
And in the digital image forming apparatus, the upper box body 1 is composed with the maintenance efficiency in the lower box body 2 taken into consideration so that it can slide sidewards relative to the lower box body 4.
Hence, in the conventional box body construction of the digital image forming apparatuses composed as shown above, it is necessary to make the upper box body 1 slide sidewards relative to the lower box body 4 as described above when carrying out maintenance in the lower box body 4, for example, maintenance of the LBU 5. For this reason, comparatively wide space including space necessary for sliding of the upper box body 1 must be secured as space for installation of the corresponding digital image forming apparatus.
Hence, recently such structure that the upper box body 1 is openably installed in the vertical direction thereof by means of hinge units comprising a pin and a supporting hole thereof relative to the lower box body n has been proposed for the purpose of saving space for installation of the apparatus.
And as described above, motors are separately provided in the upper box body 1 and the lower box body n, respectively, and it has been also proposed that elastic members consisting of rubber plate, etc. are intervened between the upper box body 1 and the lower box body 4 for the purpose of suppressing vibrations, taking it into consideration that images reading and image formation are not affected by vibrations which are mutually transmitted to each of the box bodies with respective motors acted as vibration source on drive of these motors.
However, even though elastic members are, as described above, intervened and arranged between the upper box body 1 and the lower box body 4 as vibration suppressing countermeasure in such construction that the upper box body 1 and the lower box body 4 are connected to each other only by means of such hinge units as described above, such inconvenience as vibrations may be mutually transmitted through the hinge units may be resulted therefrom.
On the other hand, in a box body construction of such conventional digital image forming apparatuses as described above, they are used with the upper box body 1 placed on the lower box body 4 by providing motors separately in the upper box body 1 and the lower box body 4, respectively, as described above. For this reason, vibrations on drive of respective motors are mutually transmitted to each of the box bodies, for example, adverse influences may be given to reading and formation of images.
Hence, since the elastic members are merely put between the upper box body 1 and the lower box body 4, such inconvenience as the positional relation between the upper box body 1 and the lower box body 4 may slip off, for example, in transit or movement of the corresponding apparatus, has occurred.